Calves!! I need advice and experience, is my routine sound?

[CobraUTAH]

Yes I've researched this on the net and on this board so please read my post. I have no calves I'll admit that right from the beginning. My legs are naturally quite skinny, strong as hell and fast, but skinny. This is the least favorite genetic trait that I aquired from my father. Anyway I did some major reading on the topic and decided to give the calves one more serious training barrage to try and stimulate some growth. I'm dedicatiing an hour every week just to my calves trying to give them the dedication that I show my other my responsive areas. My routine is as follows. I start by doing straight legged calf machine where you sit down and push the weight in front of you. I do about 5 or 6 sets of that to 15 reps and with weight that makes me fail. Then I do the seated bent leg machine for 5 sets to 15 reps to good failure. Then I do a reverse toe raise exercise for the front of the calf where I use a cable machine and hang my leg over the end of a bench and flex my foot up. By the time I'm done my calves are very trashed. I'm starting to think that the seated straight leg machine for calves isn't to hot because I can't get a very good negative stretch from it do to the design of the machine. So I'm using the leg press and that allows for a good stretch and plenty of range in the positive direction as well. What do ya think? What are you guys doing, sets, reps, machines? I don't have a donkey calf machine or the other type where you have the shoulder pads and stand straight up.

 

[johnny1111]

Have you tried working calves twice a week or more? I find that they recover fairly fast and that two to three sessions a week is what gets them growing. -john

 

[Lee]

try a low weight for 75 straight reps, maybe take a pause when u get up around 50, but dont rack the weight, just pause for a second, youll burn so bad u dont wana stand up when yer done.

 

[CobraUTAH]

I do lift my calves twice a week Monday and Friday. I spend just over thirty minutes each of those days.

Is it weight or reps that produce more growth? I hear all sorts of stories is there a right answer to this question?

 

[Thaibox]

try a low weight for 75 straight reps, maybe take a pause when u get up around 50, but dont rack the weight, just pause for a second, youll burn so bad u dont wana stand up when yer done.

The 75 rep calf set whoops ass, except you don't use light weight. You use a weight that you fail at around 25 reps, wait 5 seconds, go to failure, wait 5 seconds, etc. By the time you get near 75, you're only able to do 1 or 2 reps at a time. I've been doing this for a month now and my calves are about 20% stronger and clearly gained some size. Good stuff

 

[bigstve12]

My calves seem to respond well to some major drop sets. like 3 or 4 of them in a row.

 

[bigstve12]

My calves seem to respond well to some major drop sets. like 3 or 4 of them in a row. By the end you should have almost no weight and barely able to do any more reps.

 

[BlkWS6]

Hey Cobra good to see you registered (I responded in your thread about the 5x5 over on LS1). I consider myself to know quite a bit about calf training because I have bad genetics for calves (high insertion) yet I have been able to bring them up to be some what respectable in comparison to the rest of my body. As far as training them you really have to PRIORITIZE your calves man. I train them twice a week, and when I do them on leg day I do them before squats or any quad work. You need all your mental and physical energy to go into your calf training if you want to see some serious results. Also, I noticed you said that you werent too fond of the seated raise? This movement is a staple in my routine, and I personally think has led to some of my best overall calf development. Heavy seated calf raises seriously blew up my calves when I would do them first in my routine. I also prefer to do my straight leg calf work on the lower portion/lower calf platform on the leg press machine. Normally this platform is angled slightly which seems to reduce the ache in the foot I tend to get from doing straight leg calf work on the standing calf machine. Make sure your range of motion is legit man. Full stretch at the bottom, and go up on your toes as far as you can for the top. And contrary to the way most people seem to train their calves, I believe in HEAVY weights and a moderate rep range (8-10). Ya just have to consider them to be just like any other bodypart, and train them with the intensity that they deserve and Im sure that they will grow. I see that you are prioritizing them, and that is the first step man. Once you start hitting them like you would chest or biceps they will take off. Good luck!!!

 

[CobraUTAH]

blkws6 how are ya! Yeah they are a major priority these days and they get blasted the hardest of anything I do, both in terms of effort and time. When I said I didn't like the seated machine I was talking about a machine that you sit in but your legs are straight not bent. Anyway that machine at my gym is designed for the two heads of the gastroc, and it lacks in that it doesn't allow for a good stretch at the bottom of the rep. The other seated machine that we have is great. It's the one where your legs are bent and is for the soleus of the calf. The reason I'm thinking of ditching the straight leg gastrocnemeous (spell) machine for the leg press is because I can get a far greater stretch of the calf on the leg press. How many total sets do you do for calves? Do you do calves with both bent and straight leg to isolate the gastroc from the soleus? Also do you do the front toe raises to work the muscle in the front of the leg? I heard that it was a major muscle and you can gain size but working it. Also I remember a book I had that said to work either the soleus or gastroc first and then to work the other because one was stronger or had more endurance than the other, any ideas?

 

[Thaibox]

The important question here is... why the hell would someone with Cobra in their name be hanging out at an ls1 website?